Essential+Question+1

In the early years of a child’s life, from birth to around preschool, their language acquisition is characteristic of emergent literacy. In this stage, children indicate an interest in print before one can start speaking and an awareness of reading and writing skills before they have acquired said skills themselves. For instance, children may babble, mimic the act of reading, and make single-word utterances. (Kiel, 1998) Thus, the process of children acquiring language and literacy is said to begin at birth. Once children begin school and, thus, formal direct literacy instruction, their language development has moved past emergent literacy and is indicative of early literacy. In this same regard, students’ initial socializations and contacts with language are indicative of a primary discourse, the language and ways of behaving with which they are most accustomed. However, in a similar regard to early literacy, students’ exposure to language, literacy and ways of behaving is known as a secondary discourse, which may easily be different from students’ primary discourse. Most often, students are apprenticed into a discourse in which learning grammar and standard written English in school is emphasized; this could quite possibly clash with the primary discourse with which they were familiar. This is especially the case when English is not a given student’s first language at all, or when this secondary discourse is strikingly different from the discourse and/or way of speaking with which students were brought up; students who may speak in a manner characteristic of vernacular language, or “varieties of a language not classified as standard dialects,” (Wheeler, 2006) may be overwhelmed – even uncomfortable – with the secondary discourse of standard grammatical English. As such students are immersed in formal English, they may struggle with inflection –the ways in which words are altered based on context – as well as take time to master pragmatics and thus be aware of appropriate language given a specific context.  Throughout the semester, we explored the idea of judging others for their spoken language at home, as well as their ability to read and write standard English. I was pleasantly surprised to see my growth throughout the semester on this topic; looking back at the survey I completed at the end of the semester, I noticed that I had marked “D” for Disagree for the following two statements: “I judge a person by their spoken language” and “I judge a person by their ability to read and write standard English.” While I certainly always disagreed with such a sentiment, I am now surprised I did not mark down “SD” for Strongly Disagree; this course strengthened an awareness that my future students’ primary discourses will be diverse and thus likely not match a secondary discourse of standard English. It is thus in our students’ best interest that we as teachers consider this, and are sure not to look upon any type of discourse as inferior or in any way incorrect, but rather bear the potential diversity of said students in mind. This semester, my cooperating teacher placed a heavy emphasis on grammar; consequently, I often found myself conducting full grammar lessons, as well as incorporating them into the “Do-Now” portion of our entry routine. Although the vast majority of my middle school students for student teaching this semester were not ELLs, I was sure to be very sensitive as to how I approached grammatical errors; this included circling errors, rather than drawing an “x” through them, and not focusing on the errors themselves during whole-class instruction but on how to rewrite the sentences. My placement next semester will be at Manhattan International High School, where nearly all of my students will be ELLs. I am thrilled at the opportunity to apply all that I have learned throughout the semester about how language affects students’ learning and plan my lessons accordingly. Having these analytical tools in regard to language acquisition and development in students of all discourses will be of vital use as I further my educational career. References Kiel, J. (1998). In C. Weaver, ed. //Lessons to share: On teaching grammar in context.// Portsmouth: Heinemann.
 * How does students’ language development affect their learning? **

Wheeler, R. S., & Swords, R. (2006). //Code-switching: Teaching standard English in urban classrooms//. Urbana, IL: NCTE.